North Korea: Trump 'Begged for a Nuclear War' During Asia Trip

North Korean officials Saturday accused President Donald Trump of being a warmonger who "begged for a nuclear war" while visiting Asia this past week, but insisted that nothing would keep Pyongyang from its nuclear weapons ambitions.

"Trump, during his visit, laid bare his true nature as destroyer of world peace and stability and begged for a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula," a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman said,.according to a statement read by state news agency KCNA, reports NBC News.

The foreign ministry alsoslammed Trump for trying to denuclearize North Korea, and called his trip to Asia "a warmonger's trip for confrontation with our country, trying to remove our self-defensive nuclear deterrent."

Further, the ministry said Trump, during his speeches tried to demonize North Korea while separating it from the international community, and called him an "old lunatic."

"Reckless remarks by an old lunatic like Trump will never scare us or stop our advance," the ministry said. "On the contrary, all this makes us more sure that our choice to promote economic construction at the same time as building up our nuclear force is all the more righteous, and it pushes us to speed up the effort to complete our nuclear force."

North Korea is not known to have tested any of its missiles or nuclear devices since Sept. 15, a relative lull after a brisk series of tests earlier this year.

Trump on Wednesday, during a speech to the South Korean National Assembly, warned North Korea not to underestimate the United States' strength and resolve.

“The regime has interpreted America’s past restraint as weakness,” the president said. "This would be a fatal miscalculation. This is a very different administration than the United States has had in the past. I say to the North: Do not underestimate us, and do not try us."

According to critics, Trump's strategy is not likely to convince North Korean leader Kim Jong Un or his regime to abandon the development of a nuclear arsenal, and warn that he could trigger conflict with his rhetoric.

North Korean officials Saturday accused President Donald Trump of being a warmonger who "begged for a nuclear war" while visiting Asia this past week, but insisted that nothing would keep Pyongyang from its nuclear weapons ambitions."